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Yamaha ' ...

It’s been pretty busy for me lately, with the MIDI Music Adventure Show! and work, I havn’t had much time to post much new stuff here. But don’t worry! I am slowly but surely working on some new Synth-Studio content. So check back from time to time!

Oh, here are some new-ish recordings for your listening pleasure!

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Here are a couple recent photos of my audio rack, and Herman, our bird. Not too much going on right now. Though I am waiting for a new MIDI Controller Keyboard and a new microphone. More on that when they arrive.

I got some new gear to showcase: a second Yamaha Mixer model MG124cx, and a Radial J33 Phono Preamp.

First I’ll talk about the new mixer. Having been very happy with the MG102c, having a desire to be able to plug in more of my synths simultaneously, combined with the holiday sales at Sam Ash, the MG124cx seemed a somewhat logical step. I would have rather gotten a non ‘X’ model, as I will probably never use the on-board effects, but they didn’t have that model in stock. It’s basically the same great little mixer as my 102c, except it has more inputs and two stereo outputs. The extra output pair is really great because now it allows me to truly separate my microphone input from my synths from within my computer itself. I had an amusing yet headache-inducing time wiring this thing up for the first time. I had to draw up a whole spreadsheet of all my audio I/O’s, from my Two M-Audio Delta 1010’s through to both Yamaha Mixers until it all finally made sense.

Moving onto my new Radial J33 Phono Preamp, this thing is pretty cool. I’d been looking for an easy solution to allow me to ‘archive’ my LP records at a quality I saw fit, like 24bit/96Khz FLAC. So far it works great! I plan to have a dedicated page for the J33 sometime in the future with some example clips.

Just got a new mixer to help make my life easier. I didn’t want/need anything fancy, like automation, or stupid effects processing. I just wanted a real preamp for my microphone, and some extra inputs. I decided on the Yamaha MG102c. It was a toss up between the Yamaha MG102c, and a much more expensive Behringer Xenyx 1204FX.

The issue for me was that I would have liked the multiple outputs of the Behringer. Additionally the Behringer mic preamps are supposedly better than the ones in the Yamaha, but I’ll leave that to the real experts. On the negative side, the Behringer has the effects processor I don’t need and comes with an external USB sound card which also would not help me since I use my M-Audio Delta 1010 ASIO anyway. In case you don’t know you can only have one ASIO driver loaded in FL Studio or any other software as far as I know, its a limitation of the ASIO driver spec or something.

The big positive of the Yamaha MG102c on over the Behringer is that it has more inputs than the Behringer 1204! One more stereo pair to be precise. I really don’t see why they (Behringer) call that thing Xenyx 1204, it should be called 804, or 84. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t count as an input just because you have two kinds of plugs! This rant of coarse is directed at the fact that the Xenyx 1204 has both XLR and TRS plugs on its 1-4 inputs just like the Yamaha. Behringer counts it as 8 inputs, Yamaha is realistic and counts it as 4! What professional engineer would use both of those plugs at the same time? I don’t imagine they would. Moving on, the only drawback about the Yamaha? It has no mute buttons! That’s kind of a bummer but not in a way that really matters for me.

By now, I’m sure you are saying: “But comparing the Behringer Xenyx 1204FX to the Yamaha MG102c is unfair if you don’t want effects! Compare the MG102c to the Xenyx 1204 instead! It has no effects, which also brings its price down a bit!” Well, they didn’t have that model at the store, and the Yamaha still has more inputs, so I opted for the Yamaha. Additionally, the fact that I am relatively brand loyal also entered into it, as I am thrilled with my Yamaha HS80 monitors. I also have my old Yamaha PSR530 keyboard, and a fair amount of my dad’s old Yamaha Stereo equipment that has yet to break down in my lifetime. 🙂

So I bought the Yamaha MG102c and so far it works great! The sound quality is perfect near as I can tell. For $99, I don’t think there is anything better at the moment.

Today I thought I’d record some of the on-board demos from some of my synths. I got my old Yamaha PSR-530 keyboard to work, I thought it was broken! It appears that the plug for the DC transformer on the keyboard is busted. I recall never trying to test it with batteries, I kind of forgot it had a battery compartment. Low and behold, I put in 6 D-size batteries and it powers right up! I’ll have to take it apart at some point and see if I can replace the DC-in plug and repair it. So for now, here are some synth demos. Enjoy!

Note: Don’t forget to use the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons in the player! 🙂

Roland D-110 On-Board Demo Songs:

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Yamaha PSR-530 Demo Songs (Some on-board, some from cartridge)

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Korg X5DR On-Board Demo Songs

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